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Publication policies
The standards we hold ourselves, our editors, our reviewers and our authors to.
Publication ethics
We expect all parties — authors, reviewers and editors — to act honestly and to declare anything that could be seen to compromise the integrity of the published record. Allegations of misconduct are investigated whenever they are raised, and regardless of how long ago the article was published.
Authorship
Everyone listed as an author must have:
- made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, data or analysis;
- helped draft or critically revise the manuscript;
- approved the version being submitted; and
- agreed to be accountable for the work.
People who helped but do not meet all four criteria should be named in the acknowledgements instead. Guest, gift and ghost authorship are not acceptable. Any change to the author list after submission needs written agreement from every author.
Originality and plagiarism
Submissions must be original and not under consideration anywhere else. All manuscripts are screened for text overlap — see similarity screening. Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism and re-publication of your own earlier work without citation, leads to rejection or, after publication, retraction.
Conflicts of interest
Authors must declare any financial or personal relationship that could be seen to influence the work — funding, employment, consultancy, patents or competing interests. If there are none, say so explicitly. Reviewers and editors must decline to handle any manuscript where they have a conflict.
Research involving people or animals
Where research involves human participants, authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained and that the study was approved by the relevant ethics committee, naming it in the manuscript. Research involving animals must state the approval and the welfare guidelines followed.
Data
Authors should be able to supply the data underlying their results if the editor asks, and are encouraged to make data openly available where it is legal and ethical to do so.
Corrections and retractions
| Correction | For an error that affects part of the article but not its conclusions. The original article stays in place and the correction is linked to it. |
|---|---|
| Retraction | For findings that are unreliable — through error or misconduct — or for plagiarism, duplicate publication or unethical research. The article stays online, clearly marked as retracted, so the record remains complete. |
| Expression of concern | Issued while a serious concern is being investigated and not yet resolved. |
We do not remove published articles. The scholarly record must remain intact and citable, even when an article is later found to be wrong.
Copyright and licensing
[Confirm your licence and who retains copyright — for example: "Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication. Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence."]
Whatever the licence, readers must be able to access and read every article free of charge, and authors must be credited when their work is reused.
Archiving and availability
[State how content is preserved long-term — for example a digital preservation service or institutional repository — and where readers can find archived issues.]
Advertising and editorial independence
Editorial decisions are never influenced by commercial considerations or by payment of any article processing charge.
Complaints
If you have a complaint about an editorial decision, our process, or an article we have published, contact us through the contact form with the article or manuscript reference. Complaints are acknowledged and handled by someone not involved in the original decision.